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I recently bought a home. We toured a Zillow home, and I can understand what they were going for and where they failed. We were able to pull up to the driveway
by bastawhiz 5y ago
I recently bought a home. We toured a Zillow home, and I can understand what they were going for and where they failed.
We were able to pull up to the driveway, book a tour for that minute, and walk in the front door. It was almost a magical experience compared to the process of finding and going to showings. The listings were clear and thorough. The experience was extremely compelling.
The downside: the homes were absurdly overpriced. I bought a home for about 10% less than the last Zillow listing. For less, I got three times the land, 40% more square footage, a better location, updated appliances, new carpets, landscaped back yard, horseshoe driveway, two car garage. Almost zero effort had been put into modernizing the Zillow home and it showed.
I suspect if I had come in with a very low offer, they'd have accepted it. But for what?
If I was Zillow, I'd have licensed the tech to realtors. I'd definitely be inclined to buy a home through them if they weren't the ones selling the property directly.
- wcfields 5y agoIf I can give any home buying tip from my experience of buying two houses it's been to look at places that are in "the middle". Both homes I've bought in SoCal have had some god-awful photos online, and the finish is new-ish, but done by someone in the 70s so it's new but tacky in a little-old-lady way. This ends up pricing the house too expensive to flippers, and not nice enough to sell compared to other houses because it doesn't have the farmhouse sink and looks exactly like a grandma took out a home equity line and renovated (which is what happened).
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- escapedmoose 5y agoWe took the same approach with our house, and the results were marvelous. Major props to our realtor for seeing the potential hidden in those god-awful listing photos.
- judge2020 5y ago> The downside If this wasn’t another house in the same neighborhood then the differentiator most certainly wasn’t Zillow or their pricing.
- dlp211 5y agoWhy is this being downvoted. It's completely correct. The value of a home purchase is not just the building, but the land it sits on. OP got a bigger, more modern house, with a larger yard for less, but it's meaningless until we understand the market circumstances of both homes for sale. It could be that Zillow is overpriced here, or it could be that Zillow is properly priced, we have no idea from the information provided here.
- ipaddr 5y agoYou missed better location
- dlp211 5y agoBetter location is a completely subjective statement. Show me the comps.
- garbagetime 5y agoBetter location =/= more valuable location
- hackernewds 5y agowhy not?
- dlp211 5y agoBecause better is subjective. NYC has more crime, worst public schools, and smaller homes than a lot of suburbs, but I guarantee that NYC is more expensive. It's an extreme example, but it's not the only example.
- awb 5y ago> the homes were absurdly overpriced That’s saying a lot for a red hot real estate market. I still get updates from Zillow every month saying my home increased 5% in value in the last 30 days and up 30% over the last 12 months. Something is wildly off with their algorithm.
- bastawhiz 5y agoThe agent I was working with showed me two houses on the same block that were much more modern and had sold for less within the previous few months. The Zillow house in question had been on the market for almost four months and was in far worse shape.
- hammock 5y agoSounds nice. Where do you live?
- bastawhiz 5y agoRaleigh NC! Nice weather, friendly people, adorable housing, good food. The only complaint I have is that you need to drive literally everywhere.
- TomVDB 5y agoI’m surprised you have an issue with arranging visits to open houses? Open RedFin, check the houses for sale, go to the open house when there is one? That’s at least how it works in the Bay Area. We never had to schedule or book anything, and only after seeing a house we liked, we asked our agent to check it out and submit an offer.
- bastawhiz 5y agoThe house I bought was listed for two weeks. They had one day of showings. The following day they stopped accepting offers. Maybe it's different in the Bay, but here in Raleigh houses are available to tour for essentially eight hours.
- moonchrome 5y agoThe alternative being to ask above market the house so it sits on the market for longer ? I don't understand what Zillow changes in this story ? (I'm genuinely curious - not from US)
- HWR_14 5y agoMost investors seem to overask and let it sit on the market. The carrying cost of an extra month is more than offset by the higher final sale price.
- bastawhiz 5y agoZillow eliminates the notion of showings as an event. They plug in a smart lock and (at least to my understanding) you can tour the minute the listing goes up. There's no rushing to showings, your can tour any house that's in their portfolio on the market.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Zillow eliminates the notion of showings as an event Showings aren't an event unless the seller (perhaps through their agent) decides they should be. > They plug in a smart lock and (at least to my understanding) you can tour the minute the listing goes up. A lockbox with a key that buyers agents can get access to has been routine for sales of homes where the seller doesn't actively choose to limit showing for a long time; changing the technology doesn't fundamentally change anything. If access is made directly to buyers that would be a slight change in accessibility (also an increase in risk for the seller), but not, in practice, a huge difference.
- polski-g 5y agoZillow prices my house 100k higher than redfin
- Breza 5y agoI have the opposite experience. I love my house but if Redfin offered to pay me what the say my house is worth, I might sell and buy the bigger house next door.